I do not own any D.C. or Disney characters named herein, and am only using them for a story meant for entertainment purposes only.
Kim Possible: Wonder Girl
By LJ58
4
"Mother."
"I am not going to argue with you again."
"I don't wish to argue, but what Anastasia said…."
"Is irrelevant. Kimberly must still complete her own training. She must prove herself a true warrior before she can petition the gods. Any of them. It is the way."
"Mother, how can you be so blind. Kim is already a warrior. She was one before she arrived. Anastasia's words only confirm….."
Hippolyta turned to glare at her daughter.
"Do you think me blind? Anastasia has proven the gods will allow an Amazon to live in Man's World. I know this. But have you asked why? Perhaps she was meant to spawn her granddaughter. Perhaps all of this….is another test. We don't know. And we cannot violate the will of the gods without knowing."
"Mother, this afternoon when I followed her, I heard her complain, and grumble all the way up the mountain. She thought it was silly. Our test. Our rite. It was silly to her. She climbed like a lizard, never fearing the trial for an instant. When I saw the war-bird appear…."
"I can imagine," the monarch sighed.
"No, you cannot. How many have ever ridden one of those demons," she asked.
"You know that as well as I," the ageless queen remarked.
"Exactly. I thought she was going to die before I could reach her. When I saw her charge that monster, and leapt right into its very claws, I though her dead. You heard the tale, mother, but you didn't see her face. She was….ecstatic. Risking her very life, daring what had never been done, and she was screaming with glee at the doing." Diana paused, and grumbled, "I wager her own shouts frightened off our mounts as much as the war-bird."
Hippolyta smiled now.
"You still don't like walking, do you?"
Diana just glowered.
"My point, mother….."
"I know your point." She paused, and walked over to look out at the moon high overhead in the night sky. "Do you know what Kimberly told me when we first spoke?"
"How could I? You sent us away."
"She told me that 'anything is possible, for a Possible.' Right before telling me she was going to get home if she had to risk the gods themselves."
Diana just stared.
"I believe her," the queen admitted.
"Then you will help…..?"
"What the gods will, none of us can say. But she must earn her right to stand in Athena's sacred grove. I give her into your keeping, daughter. Train her, and train her well. I wager, does she continue as she has begun, she'll soon be giving you a challenge."
"I welcome it," Diana murmured with a secret smile.
"Go. And say no more of this."
"I noticed you did not order the Outsider ship destroyed."
"The gods allowed it through. If they wish it whole, who am I to gainsay them? Besides, it might help improve our own ships if we study it."
Diana smiled.
"As you say, mother. I noted you weren't too surprised by Anastasia's return, though."
"I suspected," the woman smiled secretly, "That if Artemis was right, she would not be far behind her grandchild. What mother would ever turn her back on her own," she asked Diana quietly.
Diana said nothing, and walked over to embrace her.
"I won't let you down, either, mother. I swear."
"I know you won't," she told her. "Just don't let Kimberly down. Or I fear she might well try storming Olympus itself on her own."
"Likely riding one of Ares' war-birds," Diana grinned.
"Hera help her," the queen sighed.
Diana only laughed.
KP
"I'm not that good with weapons," Kim grimaced, taking the heavy, steel blade that was apparently infused with its own magic.
"Every warrior must know how to handle anything before them," Diana told her. "In battle, you have to know that you don't always get the weapon of choice. Or even the venue you prefer. You must be ready to accept whatever comes."
"I know that," she complained.
"You are very impatient, aren't you," Diana noted, raising her own blade.
"I'll admit, it's probably my only failing."
Diana arched a brow.
"Well, my only major one," Kim grinned. "Now, if you asked Bonnie….."
"Bonnie?"
"High school rival. Fellow cheerleader. Although I hesitate to call her fellow. She never was much for team sports, unless she was on top."
"On….top? What is….a cheerleader?"
Kim grinned.
"Oh, do I have things to tell you," she said, grinning at the idea of an Amazon cheerleading squad.
"What is so funny," she frowned at her as Diana let Kim step forward, balancing her shield as she continued to grin.
"Just wondering. Is the point to master the sword, or just beat the opponent?"
"Both are ideal," Diana huffed. "It took even me almost a full decade before even I could….."
Diana ducked, blocked the overhead swing, and spun only to take Kim's shield to her own, the clang of steel on steel momentarily deafening. Even as she reacted, she never saw the willowy redhead's foot hook her own, or the elbow as Kim unexpectedly spun around, and simply drove her back overbalanced to land sprawling on her back.
An instant later, Kim's sword was at Diana's throat.
"So, how was that," Kim asked.
Diana gaped.
"Blind luck," she sputtered.
Someone laughed.
"She told me the same thing the first time I beat her," Artemis grinned, walking over to join them. "I brought food, and wine. I thought you might be tired by now."
"Not really," Kim smiled, stepping back to sheathe her sword before offering Diana her hand.
Diana took it, still shaking her hand.
"Admittedly, you're not bad. For a novice."
"That means you're in for it now," Artemis told her, setting down a basket, and pulling out a fat pitcher, and three goblets.
Diana only smiled as she tapped her sword against her shield.
"How about we spar."
"That is what we're doing," Diana told her.
"Hand-to-hand."
Diana laughed.
"No one can best me at wrestling," she boasted.
"Ever use monkey-style kung fu?"
"Kung….fu," Diana frowned.
"Let me show you," Kim suggested, and put her shield aside as Artemis grinned.
"Make a wager, Kim. It'll make things more interesting."
"A wager," Kim frowned.
"Very well," Diana smiled. "Loser must give the winner a massage, and tend them in their quarters for a week."
Kim grimaced.
"When you say….tend them…..?"
"Are you a virgin, little girl," Diana smiled in predatory fashion. "Or just afraid," she demanded as she cast her own sword and shield aside.
"Okay, you're on," Kim huffed.
"Can I get in on this," Artemis asked, setting out food with the drink now.
"Shut up, and ready the meal," Diana declared. "This won't take long."
Artemis laughed.
Twenty minutes later, Diana was frowning as she poured Kim a glass of wine, and complained, "I would know more of this….monkey fu."
"Kung fu. It has several styles. I know more than a few," Kim grinned.
"This is how you fight?"
"Usually. I will admit I have an unorthodox style."
"Obviously," Artemis grinned. "I've never seen the princess dumped on her pretty backside so many times, or so fast."
"Would you like a turn, Artemis," Diana growled.
Kim laughed as she redhead just shook her head.
"You know me, Diana. I just like to watch," she chortled.
"You are as bad as Shego," Kim smirked.
"Shego," both women asked. "You're lover?"
Kim blushed.
"Lover? No, no, no. I'm not…. She's not…. She's…. A rival. We fight. A lot."
"So, an enemy," Diana nodded.
"No. She's…. She's hard to explain. She started as a hero, herself. But she ended up turning to crime later, and that's when I met her. We fought, at first, but then we….well, we got to know each other, and we even fought together at times, saving the world. She's…. It's complicated. Shego is….different."
"Sounds like a lover to me," Diana murmured.
"At the least," Artemis agreed.
"We're not lovers," Kim sputtered.
"Yet," both Amazons suggested.
"Shego wouldn't even be interested. Not in me. She just likes to fight me."
"Oh," both women grinned.
"You'd have to know her," Kim sighed, glaring at them.
"Tell us of her."
"Well, she's…..strong. Sarcastic. A bit indolent, but she's poetry in motion when she fights. Ironically, she isn't about doing bad, or good. She just likes to fight. She started fighting me because I'm one of the very few that could keep up with her in spite of her powers."
"Powers" Diana asked.
"Sometime back, she and her brothers were hit by a comet. It gave them fantastic powers. She's strong, fast, and can generate plasma….like green fire," she told them as both women frowned.
"So, she is touched by the gods," Diana realized.
"I think it was just a comet."
"Do you honestly think a comet fell from the skies, hit mere mortals, and they survived," Artemis asked. "I think the gods were likely involved. It stands to reason."
"I suppose when you put it like that, it seems….likely," Kim murmured, still wondering about all the gods, and what was really involved. Still, she was on an island filled with immortal Amazon warriors hidden from the rest of the world by….magic?
"It is. At any rate, tell us more of this Shego," Diana pressed.
She did, telling them of their battles. Some of their tamer encounters, and even how she tended to be sarcastic at the best of times, even when it made no sense."
"She desires you," Artemis finally declared. "You must be blind, sister, for it's obvious."
"What? No," Kim sputtered.
"Tell me more of your world. This….Global Justice you follow," Diana asked.
"Well, what do you want to know," Kim asked, eager to change the subject.
"Everything," Diana murmured, her blue eyes lit with a gleam even Artemis had never seen before now.
She eyed her friend thoughtfully, but said nothing as Kim continued to speak of her world.
Diana, she noted, hung on every word.
KP
"Found her," Ron was told as Wade called him back a month after Ron had last called.
"You found Kim," Ron asked excitedly.
Wade sighed.
"No, Ron. The secret agent you said came to your door? Stacy Steele? Remember?"
"Oh, yeah. Who is she? Where is she?"
"I tracked her to the NSA," Wade admitted. "She is definitely one of theirs. A deep, deep cover, top covert operative. So, naturally, I couldn't find much."
"So, what did you find," Ron asked.
"That's the weird part. According to everything I found, which wasn't much, she's not supposed to exist."
"Huh?"
"Ron, she doesn't have any history past going to work for the NSA. It's like she walked in the door, and there she was. But people don't get that old without leaving a back trail. Only she doesn't have one. At all!"
"So…..what about where she is now?"
"That's the weird part. I tracked her to Florida, where she took a private launch to sea. No record of where she was going. No record of what she planned. But the last reports from area witnesses said she took off in a southeastly direction a few days ago."
"Where KP disappeared," Ron frowned. "Maybe I should get a boat, and…."
"And do what, Ron," Wade sighed. "It's still a really big ocean. And the Navy, GJ, and quite a few interested private parties have checked. I conscripted several satellites for weeks trying to scan that area….
"Wade?"
"Satellites," the distracted genius murmured. "Get back to you, Ron."
Wade went to work without hesitation, not feeling the slightest twinge of guilt at hacking the spy satellites he felt should be public property, anyway. Taxpayer money paid for them, after all. And if he technically wasn't one, yet, his parents were. In his mind, that was enough.
Besides, he was hunting someone that deserved every chance.
He finally found an area satellite in the right position with the hardware he needed.
He began targeting the region, and backtracked, and against all odds, found the small, private launch hired out of Palm Beach by the director of the NSA himself.
No comment, of course, and the man was more tightlipped than Dr. Director.
Than didn't stop him from zooming in on the small boat that had obviously made very good time to reach its current location. Only she was still miles from anywhere. Even as he focused the satellites high definition cameras, she realized the woman was pouring something into the ocean as she now knelt on the bow.
To pray?
In the middle of the ocean.
Then, live, on his many monitors, he saw the woman suddenly leap to her feet, guiding the boat ahead again where it seemed to hit something that made it just…..start to vanish. The bow. The cabin. Then…..
"You are not welcome here, Oracle," a voice growled from all his speakers at once, even as every system in his room shorted, exploded, and sent up noxious clouds of choking vapor that filled the enclosed space.
He fell back, landing hard on his back as he stared up at the ceiling, that voice still echoing in his head, as much as his ears, and then he very clearly heard, "You will remain silent of this matter, Oracle."
The 'or else' was clearly implied in that impossible voice.
But…. Oracle?
Who…. What was that? How the hell did it get into his systems? His room? He lay there, mentally, and physically stunned, and not quite sure how to explain it.
It was like….
Not magic.
Wade was a man of science.
Logic and reason were his tools, and he could explain virtually anything with them. He had helped Kim face literally impossible odds against anything, and everything with those tools. Never, however, had he felt so…..out of his league.
He swallowed hard, and wondered how to explain this one.
Or if he dared.
He slowly dropped his gaze from the ceiling to the smoldering ruin of his once powerful tech-system that could stand up to any super-computer on the planet.
"Mom is not going to like this," he groaned, realizing everything was a total loss even without looking.
When he did look, he was even more mystified.
The circuit boards had not so much shorted, as they had been melted to sludge. To the last wire, the towers around him had been reduced to boxes filled with electronic sludge. If that wasn't a warning, he didn't know what was.
Only from who?
From what?
He was afraid to even ask.
KP
Diana was grinning as she lay on her stomach in the grass, staring over at Kim as she soaked in the spring, telling her story.
"….and then he actually curled up, and started sucking his thumb. Calling for his mother," Kim was saying, relaying another tale about an ineffectual nemesis who seemed more clown, than not to Diana's thinking.
"And what of your Shego?"
Kim shot her a glare.
Diana was always doing that. Dropping sly expressions. Less than subtle suggestions.
It didn't help that she belatedly found out the sisters had their own lovers among their own. More than a few had even intimated that they wouldn't mind sharing beds with her. Kim had blushed for days when Diana had loudly declared that Kimberly pined for her own lover.
"Shego actually left him behind that time. She grabbed the diamonds from the machine, which had blown up anyway, and ran off leaving him to the authorities."
"You have led an interesting life, sister," Diana smiled, eyeing her. "In many ways, I envy you."
Kim eyed her.
"So, have you ever thought of leaving the island," she dared ask.
"Not until recently," she replied with that careless honesty all the Amazons seemed to employ.
Their manner, she knew, was a far cry from the guarded maneuvering for social eminence back home. Bonnie would have likely hated this place. She wouldn't have known how to face such candor. She could just imagine that paranoid fame queen faced with an invitation to someone's bed. She once tried to ban one of the junior girls from trying out because she had looked at her too long in the locker room. Talk about touchy!
"Oh," Kim replied at length. "So, if you had a chance….?"
"Mother would never allow it. Even if it were possible. I am her heir, and have to be here in case of….."
"What? You guys are all but immortal, and you don't seem to have any illnesses?"
"There is something you know, Kimberly. With every gift the gods give, there is a responsibility. A task that must be carried out."
Kim frowned.
"Let me guess. This is where the other shoe drops, and you tell me Paradise is rigged?"
"What do dropping shoes have to do with the gods," Diana frowned.
Kim tried not to laugh.
"Sorry. It is an expression. Slang. It means that I should have expected there to be trouble hanging over your heads."
"In that, you are right. Athena did not put us here by happenstance. The charge of every Amazon is to guard the gates of Hades hidden beneath this very island."
"When you say….gates….?"
"They are the very gates to the underworld, as I said. Only more than Hades is locked within. Monsters such as you could not imagine dwell within. Ares, that mad god of war, would like very much to have them opened to further his own cause. That is why Heracles truly came here, you see? Not for mother's girdle, as those old tales you shared implied. He wanted to tear open the gates, and free hell on Earth to aid Ares in starting a new empire of destruction."
"And you stopped him."
"Mother did. At great cost."
"I won't ask."
"It is not a secret. Her own first daughter was at her side, and she fell in the battle. In her grief, she molded a statue of her lost child. Athena chose to bless her, and the gods gave fantastic gifts to that statue, and infused it with life."
"You mean, like Galatea?"
"I am aware of the myth. It is ironic, considering."
"Wait, you're saying….?"
"I am mother's Galatea. Save she named me Diana to honor the gods who gave me life, and her the boon of another child."
Kim found it very hard to think of anything to say just then.
"Kim. Diana. Come," Aristia called them, the queen's guard appearing just then. "Our Queen-Mother bids you attend her at once. Something stirs in the temple of the gods," she added somberly.
"That is never good," Diana rasped, and leapt to her feet, holding out a robe for Kim.
"What does it mean," Kim asked as they all ran for the city, Kim dressing along the way rather than delay.
"The last time mother sensed a stirring, Ares tried to attack the island once again. That was the day we thought Anastasia lost to us," Diana told her.
Kim had absolutely nothing to say to that.
To Be Continued…..